1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a downhill or cross-country ski shoe or boot having a shell base on which at least one upper element is journalled for movement, such a rear or front spoiler, for permitting the skier to put on and take off the shoe or boot, wherein the shoe or boot includes an energy source, an energy consuming device, such as a heating device, and an apparatus for controlling the energy supply for the energy consuming device.
2. Description of Background Information
Ski shoes or boots are known which are intended to improve the comfort of the wearer by means of the incorporation of heating devices. These devices include the electric type, which use a heating resistance, and the liquid or gaseous fuel type, which use a reservoir of fuel and a burner positioned in the shoe or boot. The heating devices having liquid or gaseous fuel are advantageous, compared to electric devices, in making it possible to obtain a greater autonomy, making them more convenient, and to ensure, during a relatively long period of time, a desired level of comfort of the shoe or boot with regard to the temperature.
Heating devices using a liquid fuel, such as those described, for example, in Italian patent No. 1,136,269 and French Patent No. 2,080,146, generally comprise a burner having rechargeable liquid fuel, which is positioned under a heat diffusion plate incorporated into the sole of the shoe or boot so as to extend as close as possible to the foot of the wearer of the shoe or boot. Other heating devices which use a gaseous fuel comprise a reservoir of gas which feed, through a valve, a catalytic burner, all of these elements being likewise totally positioned within the sole of the shoe or boot.
Such heating devices having gaseous fuel are described, for example, in Italian Design No. 196,850 and in International Patent Application WO 86/05663. Heating devices using gaseous fuel are of the type having a rechargeable gas reservoir and it is consequently necessary to provide, in the sole of the shoe or boot which contains the reservoir, an orifice through which the internal gas reservoir can be connected to an external recharging source of external gas.
All the known heating devices, either of the electric type or of the type using liquid or gaseous fuel, have the disadvantage that once heating is started, stopping the heating can only be obtained through manual intervention by the wearer of the boot. Otherwise stated, the wearer of the boot must think of cutting off the heating when he takes off his boot and, consequently, it is obviously possible for him or her to forget to perform this operation, which then translates into a continuation of the heating of the removed boot, thus a rapid exhaustion of the energy source used and a waste of this energy.